Most of us allow others to dictate how we see winning and losing for ourselves. This is a fundamental mistake. How can it make sense to live our lives according to the opinions of others? If your parents/family have certain expectations for you, your life, and your work - they are defining winning and losing for you. Be willing to get clear on your values and goals. Most of us are reared to embrace the values and goals of our parents and family members. We don't give a lot of thought to how we truly believe and think and aspire. We simply parrot what we've been taught. We have never thought deeply about our own beliefs and most of us would not dare to hold conflicting beliefs. Without examining these for yourself, the possibility of a deeply gratifying and authentic life becomes impossible. Instead, you simply "go along" with your life as someone else has laid it out for you.If, upon examination, you discover the desire to live a life counter to what's been expected, it will take some will and fortitude to forge the new path. When we find ourselves deciding to create a life of our own choosing, there is likely to be resistance from others. Typically, those with expectations for us are unlikely to abandon them willingly. Those who desire to run our lives will inevitably find our choices disappointing [Read more]
The Color of Food and Weight Loss
It is possible to color coordinate a healthy diet from foods that have a deeply saturated color because the color is a signal to what types of nutrients are contained in the fresh food. By eating from an array of deeply colored foods daily, it is possible to provide the body with highly nutritious foods that can curb the hunger feeling.
When eating a healthy or unhealthy diet, your body will get hungry when it needs more energy or nutrients every few hours. Cravings and bingeing begins when the body does not have all the nutrients that it needs. A craving will start for a food or snack that provides a bit of that nutrient and bingeing will happen when the body is such desperate need of a nutrient that a person will binge on a food or foods that contain some of the nutrients that they need. To avoid this cycle, the best diet will provide the all the nutrients that the body needs.
Deeply colored foods contain more nutrients than their duller companions. Eating foods that offer more nutrition can contribute to more than just weight loss because the nutrients found in these highly nutritious foods can protect the body against many diseases including cancer. Eating too much foods that are low in nutrition can be a direct cause of weight gain, illness and disease. The choice to eat highly colored natural foods is a step in the right direction for many people [Read more]
I Am Not My "To-Do" List - Or Am I?
I fear for my life when the to do lists take over. Notice plural. I can't live without them and I can barely live with them. Of course, there's more than one. They grow, they multiply, they spawn themselves into more. I write my lists to capture all the stuff of life. I write lists of ideas that tend to fly. I write lists for the maintenance projects or new ideas for the corner garden I recently ripped out. It's the chaos corner of the property planted with impossible roses. I'm about to give up on them. So there's a list of replacement ideas. Then there's the food shopping list that usually includes the drug store, drycleaner and hardware store. For groceries, I wonder why I bother to buy anything let alone make a list about it. I'm out in the world a lot for meals or I forget to eat what I bought. When I do finally get some groceries in the house I overbuy and so that doesn't work either.
This list making thing started when years ago my Mom gave me this little red booklet in the midst of a personal crisis. The booklet was encouraging making a list of all the things you wanted for your life. Start writing and at the end of the weekend, and not before, she said, will we talk about it. O.K. Mom. I wrote lists, more lists, edited them, threw stuff at the page with great fury and exuberance. I wrote and edited in a storm. The next day those things that seemed exactly what I wanted stayed on the list. Other things that seemed great yesterday and now seemed ludicrous or totally alien to anything I would ever consider doing or being went away. By the end of the weekend, I had a handle on the immediate crisis and the beginning of some Light for a long term picture. I had run the marathon of non-stop list making [Read more]
5 Keys to Happiness
How can happiness be unreasonable? If I was giddy, or manic, or obviously unhinged, I'd understand the comment. But that's never been the case. Those comments were directed toward me when my life's circumstances were understood: I have two children with a serious mental illness, bipolar disorder. When other people learn that fact, they sometimes feel pity, or sadness, or some other negative emotion. I understand that. We never expect to have less than perfectly healthy offspring, and we certainly don't expect people to be happy about the fact when they do. But how defeating is that attitude? I mean, really, since two of my kids have an inherited illness (that can be treated, by the way), I should live in a puddle of my own despair?I don't think so!
I think we are meant to be happy; and I've always made happiness my aim, despite the obvious let-downs and challenges. We can all make that choice. And it is a choice. Researchers from across the US, including groups at University of California at Riverside, University of Illinois, University of Minnesota and University of Pennsylvania, have studied happiness and all its intricate makings and workings. As I read their findings I identified five common components, or keys, to the development of happiness in anyone's life, regardless of circumstance. You might be surprised at how simple it is to be happy [Read more]
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